further surprised to see that Broderick had reverted much of the script to more closely follow its inspiration. According to David Carradine's book Spirit of Shaolin, it was clear before production started that the film was going to be a version of Yojimbo, and Carradine talked about it with executive producer Roger Corman: The Warrior and the Sorceress) was essentially a remake of Yojimbo, the samurai movie by the great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. I called up Roger and told him I loved the script; but what about the Yojimbo factor. Roger said, "Yes, it is rather like Yojimbo." I said, "It's not like Yojimbo. It is Yojimbo." Roger said, "Let me tell you a story. When Fistful of Dollars opened in Tokyo, Kurosawa's friends called him up and said 'You must see this picture.' Kurosawa said, 'Yes, I understand it is rather like Yojimbo.' 'No, it's not like Yojimbo, it is Yojimbo. You have to sue these people.' 'I can't sue them', he responded. 'Why not?' 'Because' -Kurosawa confessed-, 'Yojimbo is Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.'" I went for it. The story however appears to be apocryphal, as Kurosawa and Toho Studios did in fact successfully sue Sergio Leone. Reception The Philadelphia Inquirer called it "an unashamedly sordid rehashing - and retrashing - of Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic Yojimbo, via Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, with a little Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian tossed in for good measure." The Los Angeles Times also noted the similarities to Yojimbo and said the film had "awkward action, a general air of determined viciousness and (Carradine excepted) so much overacting that it sometimes seems that a new dramatic style is being forged." Footage of the film later turned up in Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II. References Sources External links 1984 films 1984 fantasy films English-language Argentine films 1980s English-language films American sword and sorcery films American remakes of Japanese films Argentine fantasy films 1980s American films